A number of years ago I tried to find out how to get a birth certificate for my grandmother, who was born in Cape Town about 1860. I believe someone told me that such certificates were not available for 19th-century South Africa, but I'm not really sure about it or what the reason was. Could someone tell me whether this is correct and if so why? I would be very disappointed if it is, especially as I have recently discovered that my grandmother had two younger siblings also born in Cape Town in the 1860s -- but then genealogy is often a series of disappointments!
